Faith Wilmot died on Jan. 10, 2026 in Coralville, and her Celebration of Life was on Saturday, May 25, at the Unitarian Universalist Society. Faith was one of our small gang of locals who did politics. We met during the 2004 John Kerry campaign for president. Faith was for Howard Dean. She was a lot more than her politics.
My fondest memory was while I was walking in our annual parade through the City of Solon. She walked up to the curb with her adopted young daughter Miracle. It was something to see them together, Mother teaching Daughter about life in the community. More than most people Faith was part of the fabric of our community, her bright colors standing out in the warp and weft of a society we made.
The election day dinners Faith and Monique hosted in their home were legion. She started a turkey early in the day and we all brought side dishes to serve with it. With a house full of food aromas we made the last minute telephone contacts around their large dinner table. If we couldn’t reach someone on our list, one of us drove over to their house to see if they were home. There were more than a few last minute dispatches to drive people to the polls when they couldn’t get there without us. We worked until every contact was made before the polls closed.
At the memorial someone referred to us as the “Solon Mafia,” although they said it was a positive thing. I replied, it’s not like we were trying to bump anyone off. After some reflection, they said, there are a few that maybe you should. We all pulled together on election day and were better for it.
Faith had been ill before moving to Coralville and the illness eventually took her from us. We all moved on yet will remember Faith as a shining light in a world of meanness. I don’t think Faith knew how to be mean, especially with people she knew. May she rest in peace.
Poll worker walks toward the entry point of a drive-through voting lane.
Last week I worked three six and a half hour shifts as a poll worker for the Johnson County Auditor, helping with drive-through voting. This operation is conducted in a parking ramp located next to the county administration building. If a person is sociable, the work interacting with voters can be engaging. If less so, it is the perfunctory stuff people do to fill out a schedule of security and retail work, and retirement activities. As I said to a colleague after the shift, and before they went to their next job as security staff, “It is good work if you can get it.”
My job was guarding the ballot bin, and making sure voters signed their ballot envelopes and sealed them before they went into the slot. The first two days, my partner was a Republican with whom I had worked at the home, farm and auto supply store. I got caught up on the doings over there. With a couple of exceptions, everyone I knew no longer works there.
The county makes sure there is an even match between the number of Democratic and Republican poll workers. Not that it makes a difference, because the process itself delivers fairness. These days, accusations fly and the Republican-Democratic evenness is an antidote to accusations of foul play.
We were not very busy. My mobile device monitor recorded two hours of reading my kindle app on Friday, our busiest day of the three. I had forgotten I started Suze Rotolo’s book, A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties. She is not a great writer, yet the record of that time is of interest to people like me who participated vicariously in that era. Rotolo was Bob Dylan’s girlfriend and is featured on the cover of his 1963 breakthrough album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. It helped pass time.
On the last day I partnered with a younger man with a backpack. We got along fine and got the job done. He was not a talker, hence the two hours of reading my Kindle.
The worst part of the shifts was standing on a concrete floor. The auditor provided folding chairs for us, yet being on my feet so long in a day is something I had forgotten. I knew to wear shoes with inserts to protect my feet from the concrete.
Of the jobs I held previously, it most reminded me of working at Kentucky Electric Steel near Ashland, Kentucky, and at the sub-assembly operation for Whirlpool in North Liberty, both of which had concrete floors. There I wore steel-toed shoes with metatarsal protection yet the concrete floors were hard on my feet. The latter led to my first case of plantar fasciitis. During poll working shifts I did exercises to hold off plantar fasciitis. My shoe inserts and exercises did their job and my feet were fine immediately after work and the next days.
I have two additional shifts as a poll worker. One is at the auditor’s office working on early voting inside and the other is election day coverage in our precinct. My spouse and I voted early so there would be no hassle on election day. I have been a Democratic poll watcher the last two election cycles, and know the level of activity to expect. I may be able to finish my Kindle book.
The bipartisan nature of poll working makes it a positive experience. Unlike some of my colleagues at the drive-through, I don’t expect to marry up poll working with security work, despite the similarities. Will know more on that after the primary election.
The primary season has been a prelude to an important election in the history of our state. Since Republicans gained majorities in the Iowa House and Senate in 2016, along with the governorship, they have been hammering away at our freedoms. Energy is building to reverse policies created since then. 2026 may be a decisive year.
Rob Sand has been the sole Democratic candidate for governor since filing day, March 13. He has had the luxury of preparing for the general election instead of expending resources on a primary fight. He has been making the most of it. Due to hard work and political savvy, Sand’s outlook has been positive, with strong fundraising, favorable early polling, growing national attention, and a race increasingly viewed as genuinely competitive despite Iowa’s recent Republican dominance.
Democrats fielded an entire slate of statewide candidates, although none of them is operating at the scale of Sand in name recognition and fundraising. Of the group, attorney general candidate Nate Willems stands out, having raised $1.25 million according to the reporting period ending this week. The remainder are strong candidates with individual strengths, yet none has broken out like Sand or Willems. They all depend on Sand pursuing the governorship at a high level and, in doing so, motivating Democrats and no-party voters to turn out for the Democratic ticket.
Sand is well positioned to do this. He is the only Democrat currently holding statewide office in Iowa. He has significantly more money than the other Democratic candidates and substantially higher name recognition. Polling on the other statewide candidates is sparse, and Sand is the only Democrat currently showing consistent competitiveness in public polling against a top Republican opponent. To the extent they matter, national Democratic groups appear to view Sand as the party’s best chance to make Iowa competitive again. These are the reasons I say Rob Sand has been using the time before the June 2 primary well.
The Johnson County Democrats pointed out the obvious in their May 13 newsletter: “We’re heading into one of the busiest and most exciting seasons of the year, with parades, fundraisers, and community events filling our spring and summer calendar. These moments are more than just celebrations. They’re opportunities to connect, organize, and build the momentum we need for the months ahead.” At the county party Hall of Fame event on May 16, inductees mentioned the need for Democrats to come together after the primary and work toward November as a team.
As primary candidates jockey for position, last week was relatively quiet. We hope it was the quiet before the storm that brings new leadership to Des Moines and the state.
Early voting for the June 2, 2026 primary election began on Wednesday, May 13. I voted early because I am working on election day. Early voting feels almost like a non-event this year compared to the role it played in the Obama presidential campaigns of 2008 and 2012. Republican opposition to President Obama emerged quickly. He did win Iowa both years.
Fueled by investments by wealthy conservative and libertarian donors, along with authentic grassroots opposition to President Obama and the Affordable Care Act, a conservative backlash movement grew in the first year of Obama’s presidency. It included spontaneous local protests soon after Obama was sworn in, the April 15, 2009, Tax Day TEA Parties, and confrontations at congressional town hall meetings over the Affordable Care Act. This conservative movement energized Republican volunteers in the 2010 midterm elections.
2010 was a turning point in U.S. political history in which Obama faced serious resistance. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was the most significant reform of U.S. health care since Lyndon Johnson signed legislation to create Medicaid and Medicare in 1965. It passed the Congress without a single Republican vote.
In the Republican resurgence in the 2010 midterm elections, they gained 63 seats in the U.S. House, made Rep. John Boehner Speaker, and gained six U.S. Senate seats. Democrats maintained control of the Senate yet had lost their filibuster-proof majority. In addition, Republicans made major gains in governorships and state legislatures. This positioned them to shape post-census redistricting in ways that strengthened their electoral position. The political polarization of 2010 endures today.
After the 2010 election, many Republican-led states enacted voter ID laws, reduced early voting periods, tightened absentee rules, and altered registration requirements. It is worth revisiting the election-law changes Iowa Republicans made after gaining unified control of state government in 2017.
In 2008 and 2012, Democratic organizations—the Obama campaign specifically—used early voting laws as a key part of their get out the vote efforts. They were successful. Republicans clearly noticed and moved to change voting law as soon as they gained control in Iowa.
The first election law change after Iowa Republicans won the trifecta in 2016 was House File 516 which reduced the early voting period from 40 to 29 days. They followed with another in 2021, Senate File 413, which further reduced the early voting period to 20 days. That leaves Iowa with an early voting period that is workable, but considerably less expansive than it once was. I believe this was part of the Republican intention.
Republican legislators made other changes to voting rules and processes. In 2017, HF 516 established Iowa’s voter ID requirements, required signature verification for some absentee ballots, changed absentee-ballot request procedures, and expanded procedures intended to prevent duplicate or ineligible voting. In 2021, the list of changes was longer:
Polls closing at 8 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. on Election Day.
Shorter deadlines for requesting and returning absentee ballots.
Requiring most absentee ballots to arrive by Election Day, rather than allowing some postmarked ballots to arrive later.
Restricting county auditors from mailing absentee-ballot request forms unless voters specifically requested them.
Limiting counties to one ballot drop box location.
Tightening rules on who could return another voter’s absentee ballot.
Requiring petitions for additional satellite voting locations.
Expanding procedures for moving inactive voters off registration rolls.
Increasing state oversight and potential penalties for local election officials.
A primary election is not the best time to evaluate how Democratic organizations manage early voting. Because there are high-profile Democratic primaries for the open U.S. Senate seat, in some congressional races, and in supervisor races, each campaign does their own thing regarding early voter turnout. The effort gets reduced in language to some form of “vote on or before June 2,” rather than any obvious canvassing to harvest early ballots. The new laws prohibit intermediaries from collecting completed absentee ballots.
That I characterized early voting as a “non-event,” indicates the routine nature the process has become. However, it is important to remember how we got here if Democrats want to make it easier to vote going forward.
When Governor Kim Reynolds signed Senate File 75 into law on April 11, 2025, the legislative fight gave way to an organized implementation that changed the politics of affected counties. The law requires Johnson, Story, and Black Hawk counties—those with public universities—to shift from at-large to district-based elections for county supervisors, with changes taking effect during the 2026 election cycle. The change is getting real.
Iowa City attorney Jim Larew filed a lawsuit to request a temporary injunction to stop the law. When a district court judge denied the request, the counties got to work implementing the changes as best they could. I live in Johnson County, and some things stand out:
None of the counties refused to implement the law.
Each county used the Legislative Services Agency to draw district maps.
Every supervisor seat is on the ballot in 2026, including supervisors elected two years ago to a four-year term.
There are plenty of candidates for supervisor, especially in Johnson County where there are 14 candidates for 5 supervisor positions.
The highest profile race in Johnson County is between incumbents Rod Sullivan and V Fixmer-Oraiz in District 4. Sullivan is a long-serving progressive supervisor, while Fixmer-Oraiz represents a newer progressive challenge. That race has generated substantial local activism. Neither of them would have had this kind of campaign in the at-large system.
The increase in Johnson County candidate filings is noteworthy. With so many candidates, there is a sense county politics will change dramatically under the district system. That is the hope of candidates like Republican Phil Hemingway, running for county supervisor in his sixth campaign, this time in District 2. According to the May 7, Solon Economist:
Hemingway referred to SF 75 as an opportunity for small towns, like Solon, to not feel overshadowed by Iowa City’s political composition. Rural residents, who are smaller in number, feel diluted by surrounding urban interests. Solon, he said, has a very different political alignment than Iowa City.
I don’t think Hemingway (or the Solon Economist) did the election math. In District 2, where Solon lies, there is a mix of regions: rural, small city, a substantial number of Iowa City proper precincts. There is also the large Newport precinct that behaves like an Iowa City precinct. This doesn’t fit the talking point Republicans who favored Senate File 75 assert—better representation for small cities and rural residents. Based on where Democratic votes are located, the Iowa City precincts in District 2, along with Newport, have enough to determine the general election outcome despite Republican leaning precincts like Lone Tree, Solon, and Big Grove. Regardless of the winner of the three-way District 2 Democratic primary, Hemingway should plan to lose again.
District 2 is the crux of a new politics. The Republican meme about rural voters electing one of their own gives way to the reality that candidates will have to build credibility across an electorate that includes incompatible priorities. The new politics is about building coalitions.
Rural voters may feel frustrated if they expected Senate File 75 to create distinctly rural districts and instead find themselves still electorally tied to Iowa City voters. The biggest question is whether the district system diluted or preserved Iowa City’s influence. This stands out in District 2.
It seems obvious, but voters inside a district won’t vote as a monolith. The coalition a successful supervisor candidate will have to build includes university-affiliated progressives, older liberal homeowners, renters focused on affordability, labor-oriented Democrats, environmental activists, senior citizens, farmers, rural residents, families with school aged children, and more. My point is any candidate who treats “Iowa City” or “rural residents” or “small city folk” as a monolith has signed their candidacy’s death warrant. A successful candidate has to connect rural land use, watershed protection, food systems, road funding, housing growth, affordable housing, and taxes with the same needle and thread.
The better question for candidates is how do they build a coalition that actually decides turnout? The answer is far more nuanced than the original legislative debate over Senate File 75 suggested. Things are getting real as early voting starts at the Johnson County Auditor’s office on May 13.
When the legislature adjourned sine die at 7:08 p.m. last Sunday, the governor responded with a press release hitting my inbox at 7:12 p.m., proclaiming the 2026 session was a success. Long story short, “Republicans are delivering big for Iowans,” Governor Reynolds asserted in a statement. If you believe that, stand on your head.
Republican governance has been so bad, they even passed a law to hobble Reynolds’ replacement, assuming it will be Democrat Rob Sand. They tried this before with Sand as auditor and with Attorney General Tom Miller. The efficacy of this move is wearing thin.
Water quality is such a compelling issue in Chris Jones’ campaign for Secretary of Agriculture, Republicans passed a do-nothing water quality bill in the last week of session. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Republicans are on the run.
For now, the rhythm of Iowa politics shifts, trading the urgency and headlines of floor debate for something quieter but consequential. The June 2 primaries are upon us. The relative quiet of this coming month is not inactivity so much as a change in where and how politics happens.
Campaigns are no longer ramping up—they are knuckling down. Instead of large, highly publicized events, they focus on smaller gatherings: county meetings, fundraisers, informal meet-and-greets. Messaging becomes more targeted. Endorsements, local networks, and turnout operations take priority over broad visibility. Much of the real work happens in conversations rather than speeches—in living rooms, community events, and local party circles. Organizing for the election becomes more granular.
In the Republican primary, all eyes are on the governor’s race to see if any of four other candidates can beat Randy Feenstra. All five are serious candidates as far as that is possible for a Republican, far to the right of average Iowans. Rob Sand’s clear path to the general election put’s him in a better position with each passing week as Republicans jockey for position and votes.
I wrote about the Democratic primary races here. The most interesting of those are the county supervisor races under the new system Republicans put in place in three counties with a regents university. My sense is that regardless of what the current Johnson County board of supervisors has done recently, the election is a jump ball, not governed by logic or reasoning, but a desire for something new. From where I sit, the electorate is preoccupied with other things, such as making financial ends meet under Republican governance.
It is not too late to get involved with a primary campaign in a race important to you. My advice is don’t let the quiet lull you into inaction. Too much is at stake in November and the race to the general begins in earnest on June 2.
President Lyndon B. Johnson addressing a crowd during campaign rally in Pawtucket, Rhode Island on Sept. 28, 1964. Photograph by Cecil W. Stoughton, Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library, Austin, Texas.
The saturated news coverage of Wednesday’s U.S. Supreme Court Decision in Louisiana vs. Callais makes it difficult to say anything useful about its impact. Simply put, this is about Chief Justice John Roberts’ long-time goal—four decades in the making—to gut the Voting Rights Act.
In 2016, I asked, “Who is a progressive? Who is a ‘real’ progressive? Who will continue a progressive legacy?” I answered, “You are not a progressive unless you have read Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America by Iowa’s own Ari Berman.” Little has changed in 10 years. Here is an excerpt from my 2016 review:
In this extensively researched, easy to read text, Berman reminds many of us of the reason we became politically active: as a way of engaging in progress toward racial and social justice centered around the Voting Rights Act (VRA) signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on Aug. 6, 1965.
There has been a concerted, well-planned effort to suppress provisions of the VRA. The June 25, 2013 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Section 4, which required certain states to get pre-clearance of changes to voting laws from the Department of Justice, was only the most obvious, recent incident. Berman’s account of the Nixon and Reagan administrations provides insight that de-fanging the law was part of Republican intent from the beginning. My reaction was incredulity at everything that was happening before my eyes without me understanding it.
Ari Berman, in Give Us the Ballot, traces Chief Justice Roberts’ involvement with voting rights issues back to his Reagan-era opposition to strengthening the Voting Rights Act in 1982, arguing that his later Supreme Court opinions reflect a consistent skepticism toward key provisions of the law.
Learn the history by reading Berman’s book. Be a progressive by working for the changes we need in our government to restore the Voting Rights Act and protect everyone’s right to vote.
Johnson County Board of Supervisors candidate Jon Green in Iowa City, May 22, 2021. Photo Credit – Izabela Zaluska/Little Village
Jon Green should be re-elected in the newly created Johnson County Supervisor District 2.
He was first elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2021. As board chair, Green led the process of gaining consensus on a jail proposal. When you see the jail referendum on the November ballot, Jon’s fingerprints will be all over it. We should re-elect him to finish this important work.
New districts are creating tumult in supervisor elections and can eventually be expected to impact governance. At least one incumbent won’t be returning. Others may lose their primary. The Republican hope was they could elect at least one supervisor under the district system. Change is coming, like it or not.
Jon has the sense to know changing a governance process already in transition would be tampering with an otherwise stable system. He opposes changing the form of government to using a county administrator. It is the right call.
For these reasons and more, I urge you to vote for Democrat Jon Green in the June 2 primary election for District 2 supervisor.
~ Published as a letter to the editor of Little Village on April 29, 2026.
On April 18, the Johnson County League of Women Voters hosted a forum with three Democratic candidates running for county supervisor in District 2. One topic was the potential to add a county administrator, appointed by the board.
The discussion began with Janet Godwin, who said she had knocked on hundreds of doors in District 2 and found that “many believe that a county administrator is part of that solution,” referring to Senate File 75, in which the Republican-controlled Iowa legislature required Johnson County to divide into districts with voters choosing one supervisor each.
Godwin appeared to favor an administrator, incumbent Jon Green opposed one, and Jessica Andino said she wanted to learn more after the election, arguing change in board governance would be necessary.
County governance will change, and that’s the main point against hiring an administrator now. Because of Senate File 75, there will be changes among the supervisors. At least one incumbent won’t be returning and others may lose the primary. It will be a board in tumult. Changing governance now would add to that, reflecting unnecessary tampering with a stable system.
My proposal would be to get past the election and see where things stand. What, if any, problems does election by district cause to board governance? It would be difficult to address a problem if we can’t answer that question.
One thing Green got right in the Daily Iowan was, “I don’t support that change, both because of the disruption, but I think it critically misreads the political moment that we find ourselves in. Hiring an unelected county administrator simply places more distance between the will of the voters and the execution of county government.”
Isn’t the will of the voters what this is all about?
In Spring, when the world starts turning green, hope is everywhere. For a Democrat that means hope to advance our policies and aspirations in a society where corruption, greed, and large scale grifters would swindle from us the hard won freedom and tolerance we forged over the century after the Civil War. Each year it feels real and we engage in the next election cycle, hoping to do better, staying in the fight.
37 days from the primary, it’s time to choose. In November, I’ll support the Democrats on the ballot. There are contested primary races before then, and I don’t have much else to say about races where there is only one candidate.
U.S. Senate
It would be hard for me to be in anyone’s camp but Zach Wahls. I remember him setting up an apartment in Coralville as Chloe joined him, when Elijah was an idea. I remember his first campaign for state senate against Janice Weiner. The two of them were everywhere in the district, putting in the work. He attended an event we hosted in Solon and brought the president of the Solon Community School Board, which was a first for our local politics. That early period was important to my current support.
Zach’s support for Elizabeth Warren during her 2020 presidential campaign typifies the kinds of policies he supports: taxing the wealthy, consumer protections, and improved health care for all. On the issues, Zach’s policies align with mine and continue to do so. He would support Warren’s efforts to hold corporations to account, tax wealth, enforce strict financial accountability, put teeth into anti-trust regulation, protect consumers, determine a way to fix the gap in Social Security, and transition to Medicare for all. These policies are right for Iowa and the country.
During his tenure as Senate Minority Leader, Wahls was ousted in 2023, purportedly for firing two long-term staffers. I won’t rehash that, and note the unanimous vote of the caucus to remove him. Was Iowa better for re-hiring those two people afterward?
Here’s the thing. Wahls got too far over his skis and ahead of the caucus on this action. At the same time, isn’t pushing the party in a better direction what we want from leadership? I think it is, and that’s what Wahls offers in his run for U.S. Senate. We must be agents of change. He would be… and this is why I support Zach Wahls in the June 2 primary.
First Congressional District
I support Christina Bohannan for U.S. House in Iowa’s First Congressional District Democratic primary.
I am spoiled by having had access to Dave Loebsack from before he announced for the House, through winning in 2006, and during his subsequent tenure. After he retired, and Rita Hart lost to Mariannette Miller-Meeks by six votes, my part of the state in rural Johnson County has been dominated by Republicans. With Bohannan’s persistence, and despite her previous losses, we have a chance to change that. I am pragmatic enough to know this is not about policy, but about a Democrat winning in November. A lot is at stake in winning a Democratic majority in the U.S. House, and as Bohannan said, we should “put Iowa first.” Count me in.
Johnson County Supervisor—District Two
I support Jon Green for Johnson County Supervisor in District 2.
At the precinct caucus I said,
Jon showed up in our area, canvassed with me, and listened — which tells you exactly the kind of County Supervisor he is.
One of the hardest issues we face is the jail. Jon understands we need a solution that works for the county, for county employees, and for the people who are incarcerated there — and that means real leadership, not delay or division.
As chair, Jon has proven he can lead in difficult moments. He builds coalitions, believes in transparency and debate, and makes sure every voice is heard.
At a time when local communities are often caught between state and federal pressures, Jon will stand up for this county.
We need local leaders who understand not only what the law requires, but what the people demand.
Those early observations remain important to my endorsement.
With the Solon Area Democrats we arranged an early forum for all three candidates in the primary, the other two being Jessica Andino and Janet Godwin. They are both talented, accomplished people, and qualified to be a supervisor. However, after too many delays, it is time to build a new jail and Jon put the coalition together. We should enable him to finish this work after the push for the November ballot issue.
One more thing. The issue of changing the form of county government was promoted at the League of Women Voters District 2 supervisor forum April 18. I oppose the idea, which I first heard at the county convention from Sue Dvorsky. Jon opposes it, as well. Here is my thinking from the April 21, Cedar Rapids Gazette.
As mentioned at the top, I will support Democrats in November. We have to get through the primary first, without any self-inflicted wounds that give Republicans an advantage.
Editor’s Note: These endorsements are those of Paul Deaton, and not of Blog for Iowa or any of our great writers and supporters..
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